Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar sells Point Piper’s Elaine estate for about $130m

Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar has again clocked up one of the highest house price sales in the country, this week selling his beachfront estate in Point Piper for roughly $130 million.

This is Elaine, the grand estate of almost 7000 square metres that Farquhar bought in 2017 from John Brehmer Fairfax for what was a national house price record of $71 million.

Scott Farquhar has quietly sold the Elaine mansion in Point Piper for about $130 million.

It was a momentous sale at the time not only because of the price but because the 1863-built residence had been home to one of the world’s longest-running media dynasties since Geoffrey Evan Fairfax bought it in 1891 for £2100.

The exact sale figure remains unknown, but Forbes Global Properties’ Ken Jacobs was known to be showing buyers through the property as recently as a week ago.

Scott Farquhar recently resigned as co-chief executive of Atlassian software giant.Credit: James Brickwood

Jacobs declined to comment on Friday, but a well-placed source who missed out on the purchase said an initial asking price of $120 million was raised to $130 million before it sold.

Interested parties have since been told the property is no longer on the market.

Pillinger’s Brad Pillinger also declined to comment, despite being tipped to be party to the deal.

A spokeswoman from Farquhar’s office said there would be no comment on inquiries.

Farquhar recently stepped down as co-chief executive of the software giant Atlassian, which he co-founded with Mike Cannon-Brookes.

Cannon-Brookes owns the beachfront residence next door, Fairwater, which he bought from the estate of the late Lady Mary Fairfax in 2018 for $100 million.

Farquhar was ranked the fifth-richest Australian on this year’s AFR Rich List 2024, with an estimated worth of $22.88 billion. No mortgage was ever lodged for Elaine’s title during Farquhar’s ownership.

Scott Farquhar paid $71 million for the estate in 2017.

Farquhar already holds the national house price record, set at $130 million in late 2022 for the nearby Scottish baronial mansion Uig Lodge, which he bought from rag traders Steven and Carol Moss.

The most expensive residential deal is a $140 million apartment atop Lendlease’s Residences One tower at Barangaroo, but that is a consolidation of two apartments, the penthouse and sub-penthouse. It is yet to settle.

If Farquhar ever lived in Elaine, it was only briefly. When it sold in 2017, it had approval for a six-part subdivision, and state heritage protection had been denied given many additions and alterations during the Fairfax family’s 126-year ownership.

In 2020, three years after Farquhar bought it, he lodged plans to reamalgamate the estate as a single residence, thereby protecting the gardens, century-old trees and original stables.

“When we bought the property in 2017 we were determined to do everything we could to keep it as one site,” Farquhar told The Sydney Morning Herald at the time.

Lead and asbestos throughout the house were removed a couple of years later, leaving parts of the house a shell of the original mansion.

The 1950s and 1970s additions were to be demolished as part of a planned redesign announced by Farquhar’s office but a formal sitting room with ornate leadlight windows, twin arches, a bay window and detailed plaster ceilings remained in place.

An artist's impression of the Carl Pickering-designed plans for Elaine.

A three-level residence with a distinctive curved and translucent façade designed by Rome-based Australian architect Carl Pickering and his partner Claudio Lazzarini that was to be built into the original footprint of the home was touted, but plans never lodged with council – given a neighbour’s objection.

Its latest resale is a jump in value of more than 80 per cent and will incur a stamp duty of more than $9 million.

This year’s trophy home market has clocked up more sales than listings given the many ultra-prestige properties for sale behind closed doors.

The Point Piper waterfront mansion Rockleigh sold in May for about $82 million to recycled shopping bag businessman Frank Qiang Geng, and mid-year lifestyle blogger Stephanie Conley-Buhre sold the Bellevue Hill mansion Alcooringa for about $80 million. Both properties were sold on the quiet.

Conley has since purchased another Bellevue Hill house, Monkton, for $43.5 million, also on the quiet. The only significant trophy sale openly for sale was the Point Piper house Notrella that Coolmore Australia boss Tom Magnier sold in March for $51.5 million to Ben Voltz, co-founder of e-commerce marketing technology company Rokt.